Tetrahymena cells are unicellular predatory ciliates that produce both sexually and asexually. To begin the experiment we made a master tube of 5ml of Tetrahymena and 5ml of India ink. Immediately after and then every ten minutes for forty minutes a random sample of 100ul of Tetrahymena cells were taken and added to 50ul of glutaraldehyde, killing the cells without damaging the tissues. Once mixed, 35ul of the dead Tetrahymena were put under a microscope and then ten randomly chosen cells were observed at 10X and had their black food vacuoles counted. The counts were averaged and the standard deviation calculated. Tetrahymena not randomly chosen were excluded from the experiment. This experiment showed a tendency of the Tetrahymena cells to increase their consumption rate over time, as seen by the upward slope of the graph.
Recent comments